Concurrent with the decentralization of forensic services in many states, a need has developed for a standardized approach to the assessment of competency to stand trial. One attempt to meet this need has been the work of A. Louis McGarry and his colleagues, who developed a Competency Screening Test and a Competency Assessment Instrument under NIMH support. While a few states have been exposed to these instruments, only Tennessee has adopted one of them on a systematic basis. The instruments have not been validated. The objective of the research project described herein is to evaluate the instruments and other means of assessing competency, so as to offer for the first time a reliable guide to state forensic service units seeking to broaden their capacity to assess competency while complying with the stipulations of Jackson v. Indiana. Both screening procedures and actual competency assessments will be studied (Phases I and II respectively). In each phase a panel will be convened representing the "state-of-the art" in this assessment of competency. Judgements of the panel will be compared with use of the CST, the CAI and the "normal" procedure in each study jurisdiction. The study will be carried out in Boston, Nashville, and Chicago. Analysis of findings will be published in a report permitting judgement as to the best available instruments or other assessment practice, and suggesting improvements in existing assessment instruments.